Disney Head Talks ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 5′; No ‘Frozen’ Sequel in Development

There’ve been three movies released under the Disney banner these past 3-4 years to gross more than $1 billion at the global box office (excluding Marvel Studios titles and Pixar films); Alice in Wonderland, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Frozen. While the Mouse House is moving full speed ahead with an Alice sequel for 2016, followups to the other aforementioned titles are either slower-moving or non-existent (… at the moment, anyway).

Pirates of the Caribbean 5 – tentatively titled Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales – had originally been eyed for a Summer 2015 release, but ended up being delayed for additional development; more recently, the news emerged that the project hasn’t been green-lit yet. Jeff Nathanson (Tower Heist) is still working on the film’s script, though earlier this month producer Jerry Bruckheimer voiced his confidence that the screenplay could be in shooting shape in time for production to start by Fall 2014 (in order to make a Summer 2016 release).

Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn spoke at the Bloomberg Business of Entertainment Breakfast this morning, where he spoke about upcoming projects such as the hotly-anticipated Star Wars: Episode VII. He was asked about Bruckheimer’s claim that Pirates 5 could being filming this fall, to which Horn replied (via THR):

“It’s possible. We haven’t seen a screenplay yet that I’ve been able to sign off on… There’s a lot of variables that effect the final outcome once it leaves the studio lot, so we are very careful.”

Bruckheimer ended his longtime first-look deal with Disney last year, so that may be part of the reason that Pirates 5 is progressing along slower than expected. Not to mention, Pirates franchise lead Johnny Depp’s last Disney genre blockbuster, The Lone Ranger, lost the studio a bundle and his expensive sci-fi thriller Transcendence is currently under-performing at the box office. Combine that with the fourth Pirates installment being the most critically-derided film in the series yet – diminishing the goodwill earned by previous chapters (okay, at least the first movie) – and Disney has all the more reason to be cautious about charging full-steam ahead on this project.

Frozen, on the other hand, is a film that the Mouse House is rapidly developing into a multi-platform franchise – just not one that includes additional movie installments, at this time. Horn, at the Bloomberg event, said that the Disney company is hard at work turning Frozen into a Broadway stage musical – following in the footsteps of previous hit Disney animated musicals like Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King – but that a film sequel “hadn’t even been discussed.”

The Oscar-winning Frozen makes sense as the basis for a stage musical; besides featuring a cast that includes major Broadway alum, the film’s narrative has a structure befitting a Broadway show – with its show-stopping tune, “Let It Go”, being very much a descendant of the Broadway school of music. As far as movie sequels go, arguably fellow animated feature Wreck-It Ralph creates a world that is ripe for further exploration – hence we’re happy knowing that Wreck-It Ralph 2 is in the works – far more than Frozen does (which seems perfectly fine as a self-contained story).

That said, Frozen still did earn over $1 billion in theaters around the globe, so it’s doubtful that most anyone will be surprised if a sequel conversation does, in fact, get started sometime down the line…

I agree. I love one through three, but since four didn’t have the entire cast, it just didn’t feel right and felt unnecessary. I can’t imagine the fifth one will be any better, but of course, I will still see it because I love J. Depp as Sparrow.

i really cant wait for pirates 5… i do with they were other characters and sparrow was the secondary character. that role suits sparrow best because i dont think he can carry a whole movie by himself.

i wish there were more pirate movies. they are so much fun. and im not talking about real pirates lol. i watched an anime called one piece cause there is no pirate movies out there. there are 600 eps but if you catch up its worth it. its really good

Seeing how “Frozen” is the biggest selling animated movie of all time and is trending everywhere…when I bought it I was surprised just how weak it was. I can only put it’s popularity down to that “Let it go” song!? I thought “Tangled” was a much better movie. I just think it is very overrated and isney has lots of other animated movies/musicals that far outshine it.

Frozen is this generation’s Lion King. It’s that simple. You may not particularly enjoy it, but ask any kid, and they’ll tell you how great it is. When they’re all 20 years old, they’ll have found memories of the film, and thus, will cement itself as a classic.

But yes, “Let it Go” is a very strong support beam for the film to stand on.

I think that you may simply be missing the many layers at which Frozen functions. If you look up things like analyses of the song “Let It Go” you will see that it is much more than “triumphant” song – indeed, it is more a song about isolation and alienation than anything else, something that most people miss because of its soaring music. Elsa is also one of the most complex characters that Disney has produced (indeed, that most movies have produced, period). So, I suspect that you may just be seeing the film at a very superficial level and missing a lot of what is under the surface.

Gotta respect Disney animation for not diving headfirst into a sequel for Frozen. It’s rare for a studio to actually stand on it’s foundations of refusing sequel work, regardless of how well a particular film does.

Yeah, I agree. I can’t really think of any animated sequels Disney has put to theatres. They eventually made sequels to “The Lion King”, “Bambi”, and I believe “The Little Mermaid” but they were all direct to video or DVD. Those probably were of inferior quality but they’re made solely to pacify young children so parents can have a breather.

DisneyToon Studios, was their outlet to create sequels for many of their different properties. One or two did get released to the big screen i.e. Peter Pan’s Return to Neverland, but for the most part, you’re right. They were simply direct to DVD. Once Lasseter came onboard, he pretty much shuttered the studio for a few years to restructure things. These days, they’re only doing Tinkerbell and Planes.

Once again Disney takes no responsibility for it’s huge mistake in Lone Ranger….Black Sails and the new Crossbones, let alone the popularity of National Geographic Real Pirates proves there is room for another POTC. Your making another mistake Disney, but again not owning up to it.

I can’t wait for pirates 5, the guys from kon tiki are directing & they have a new writer. Pirates 1 is my all time favorite movie, pirates 2 was good but 3 was just bad & realy let me down, 4 was alright but something was off, it had all the right stuff but I think that the film lacked heart & had weak director. The guy should probably stick to musicals. I just hope they give jack more of an edge like he had in the first one, let’s not forget he is a pirate.

I’d be very surprised if there is a sequel to Frozen, at least as long as John Lasseter is in charge at Disney Animation. I think that Lasseter has a lot of artistic integrity and that he loves the characters of Frozen. He won’t want to do a sequel unless there is something really good to add to the characters’ stories and it is not clear what that would be. Fundamentally, Frozen is about the estrangement and reconciliation of two sisters (along with a number of other themes). Now that the characters have been reconciled, and now that Elsa has overcome her fear and isolation (another major theme) it’s hard to see what a new film could be about. It doesn’t make sense to rehash what has already been done. Sure, it’s easy to introduce other conflicts for the characters to overcome and I think that a lot of people would love to see what the newly confident Elsa can do, but this kind of thing would detract from the original movie. I think that Lasseter, Jennifer Lee, Chris Buck etc. know that they have created a self-contained gem and tampering with it risks undermining what they have accomplished.